Savannah Weather Report: When it Rains it Pours

Savannah has some of the strangest weather I've ever seen. It can cloud up quickly, the sky can turn black. You'll here thunder and see lightening. Yet, miraculously you won't get a drop of rain in your part of town. However, no more than 10 minutes away, it will have poured and taken out power lines. Several times Rich or I have experience storms at our work, while the other hasn't, or it's rained at the apartment, but not at work. It makes travel planning semi-complicated.

Anyway, that's the way things had been going for us lately. We seemed to be dodging tons of bad weather. However, it finally struck all at once yesterday. The day began in the early hours of the morning, when I woke with the worst headache ever. We were out of Tylenol, so I tried to tough it out. By 8:00 am I had hardly slept and could take no more. I ran to the nearest store and on the way home, decided to have some "morning sickness" while driving. Thank goodness for the grocery bag I'd just received with purchase. The car was unscathed but I could not say the same for my clothes.

The next adventure centered on Rich and involved a trip to the urgent care and emergency room. He'll survive and will make a full recovery, but this knocked out a about five hours of our afternoon/evening. Nothing super serious, but definitely something worth looking into, especially since my mind raced with multiple worse case scenarios that could have been bad for baby.

To complete our perfectly lovely day, my car battery died while we were at the urgent care. Upon escaping the Emergency Room, we had just enough sun light for Rich to jump the battery. It got us home, but it was a scary drive. Doug did not like getting up to speed on the express way and stuttered several times--I kept praying just to make it home. This morning, despite a jump, Doug was completely non-revivable. For Rich's day off he's handling this one, as I'm too jittery and sleep deprived to be much help.

Between Rich and I, we have doctor's appointments for the next two days. Hopefully the car will be fixed soon and the sun will come back out. That's the nice thing about storms in Savannah, they never last that long.

In other weather related news, weather during the holiday weekend was really pleasant for a change. The average high temperature was well below its customary 98 degrees. There was actually a breeze, resulting in low humidity. Roz and I walked to the neighborhood park/fishing pier twice. I even turned off the AC, opened the windows and aired out the apartment. It was so nice to be able to spend time outside.

Waiting for My Real Life to Begin

Any minute now, my ship is coming in
I'll keep checking the horizon
I'll stand on the bow, feel the waves come crashing
Come crashing down down down, on me

And you say, be still my love
Open up your heart
Let the light shine in
But don't you understand
I already have a plan
I'm waiting for my real life to begin
--Colin Hay

I’m working on being patient. I’m working on trusting that everything will work itself out. I’m not perfect at doing either of these things, but I am trying to be better.

The past week or so has been a test of my patience. No, nothing exciting happened, which I suppose was precisely the problem. We’re waiting for Johnny. At the same time, I’ve been waiting for a better job. I’ve been waiting since well before graduating six months ago. I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to move home for almost three years. Heading into the third trimester, the ability to travel for interviews is concerning. Not to mention, the odds of being hired at this point in the pregnancy probably are slim.

I worry about leaving Johnny with strangers. I worry about finding trustworthy caretakers on our second shift schedules. I worry about affording child care. In a perfect world, we’d be back home and I’d have family I could trust him to.

Yet, maybe this is where I’m meant to be for now. If I stay put, I at least have some sick/vacation time built up for maternity leave. I’m not trying to play Pollyanna and put a positive spin on an otherwise stressful situation. Instead, I’m trying to find the patience to accept the blessings I do have. I’m trying to focus on the joy in my life. I’m trying to quit waiting for my real life to begin and instead enjoy the life I am leaving.

It's gonna happen soon, soon, soon
It's just that times are lean

And you say, be still my love
Open up your heart, let the light shine in
Don't you understand
I already have a plan
I'm waiting for my real life to begin

Nursery: Nearly Done

Oh how I love tacky glue

And now for the latest installment of pictures of crafty goodness used to enhance the former dining room of a one behttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifdroom apartment in our efforts to create an economically chic nursery. This week's topic: Wall Art.
Since we aren't supposed to pain the walls, and I'm not too keen on having to paint them back on the off chance the opportunity to move on presents itself, we've found less permanent ways to decorate.

Exhibit A: trendy fabric modern art display.
I used scraps of material used in other parts of the nursery, stretched over a a series of various sized embroidery hoops. Add thumbtacks on the wall, and voila. If I was ubber crafty, I probably could have covered the hoops with paint or ribbon, but I think they are fine as is. The hoops cost an average of fifty cents to $1.49 and are available at most craft stores (except the Jo-Ann's in town). The do make more colorful plastic ones, but I prefer the wooden ones anyway--not that I embroider or know the difference.

Exhibit B: Johnny's Fishing pond.

Rich's fear when I first explained the "grand plan" for the themed nursery was there would be too much green and not enough blue for a little boy's room. My compromise solution was to create fish for the wall behind the crib. Though I feel we certainly have enough blue, I do like the fish accents.
There are essentially 3 species of fish on these walls. Fish type A were made from cotton fabric. Two fish outlines were cut, sewn right sides together, flipped, stuffed and mounted with thumbtacks for eyes. Since I used scraps, I winged the outlines "on the fly" to best use the amount of scrap I had.
Fish type B were similarly created from felt. Since felt won't fray, I was able to sew right sides out, and provide more detail in the tails/fins. I also used some decorative stitching to create gills. The fabric for these fish was also scrap from another project, so my selection in color/size was limited.
Fish type C make up the majority of the school. They are only fabric on the outside. I started with fish "patterns" from online coloring sheets. I traced the outlines onto card stock (mostly display packaging material from the many shower gifts). I then cut a piece of fabric roughly a bit bigger than the cardboard fish. It needs to be big enough to cover the cardboard fish, but not too much bigger, since bulky fabric makes it difficult to tuck around details like fins. I then glued the fabric to the back of the cardboard, trimming excess as I went. These fish were stuffed with tiny fabric scraps and tissue paper before sealing the final section. The slight stuffing gives the fish a little more dimensionality than they would otherwise have. Rather than using thumbtack eyes, they are mounted to the wall with packaging tape. In the future, I may add ribbon details or button eyes, but for now, they are fish silhouettes that rise off of the wall.

Exhibit C: memo boards.


For these memo boards, I purchased 4 frameless cork boards. Originally, I was going to buy a pack of 4 cork tiles. However, I got a great deal on these frameless boards at Michael's (1.49 each I think) and they are thicker and more sturdy than the tiles appeared to be. I used leftover batting from the glider "reupholstery" project cut just slightly larger than the boards. I covered the batting and board with cute fabric. I would have rather had a staple gun or hot glue gun, but settle for craft glue to hold the fabric in place since it was what I had on hand. I used thumb tacks to hold the fabric snug until the glue dried. I added ribbons to the front, as well as more upholstery tacks at the intersection. Ribbons were secured with tacks and or glue at the back.
The memo boards currently feature cut outs of classic picture book characters. I found the images with google images and used a color printer. In the future, the boards will also feature pictures of Johnny, his family, and important reminders like feeding schedules.

Exhibit D: The pond mirror.
This is by far my favorite nursery addition. I wanted a mirror for the nursery, because every baby I have know (okay, probably older than newborn) has loved making faces at him/herself in the mirror. I liked the idea of tying the mirror into the pond theme, but didn't know how well it would turn out. Rich picked up a very economical mirror from Target for under $5.00. After some debate, we planned on taping the book character cutouts around the frame, and calling it a day. That is, until I decided to experiment.
Armed with my trusty gingher scissors and some solid cotton fabric, I began to cut reeds and cattails. Initially, I planned to sew, flip and slightly stuff the reeds. This seemed to be too much work for the effect I was attempting to accomplish. However, having planned on sewing, I ended up with two of each cattail, which allowed me to create a nice framing effect. I had to careful position the reeds so they weren't too obviously the same.
Now a more thorough crafter probably would have opted for double stick tape. However, since this was such an economical mirror, I didn't feel too bad breaking out the tacky glue and sticking the fabric pieces directly to the mirror and frame. My stroke of true genius came in the form of two green "hills" (aka scraps from cutting the reeds), which cleverly disguise what otherwise would be a messy looking knot at the bottom of the "pond."

Exhibit E: Window treatment
Nothing fancy here--more scraps put to good use. I created a pennant shape from paper then transferred to a more sturdy cardstock. I traced the shape on fabric and cut. The top tab was folded over ribbon, ironed to make the fold more likely to stay, then adhered with tacky glue. Ideally, I would have loved to have cut the edges with pinking sheers--though this project showed exactly how dull my current pair is.

Exhibit F: Burp cloths
Not exactly nursery decor, but fairly practical. I created 1/2 dozen burp cloths as they seem like a practical invention. My creations will hopefully prove both sturdy and absorbent. Side A features a soft but durable cream terry cloth, purchased for 1/2 price from the remnant bin at JoAnns. Side B features and even softer piece of flannel--mostly from scraps from previous projects, like the receiving blankets. They vary in size--due in part to the scrap nature of the flannel, or the remnant shape of the terry cloth--allowing me to get the most from the materials on hand. Ideally, I shot for 16x10, but some are longer/shorter on one or both dimension.

Exhibit G: changing table
Not one of our personal crafts, but still a semi-essential part of the nursery. Sure we didn't "need" one, but I am awful grateful to have received one as a shower gift. Considering the dinning room has no current storage, I like having the changing table to store many of our baby necessities. It's packed to the gills. We could definitely use more storage, but the debate as to how best to meet that need is still open for discussion.

Our Crib

Living in a one bedroom apartment, I didn't think we'd actually bother getting a crib. It's just another piece of big furniture we'll only end up moving once, possibly twice before the blueberry actually gets here. (We've taken to calling the future baby a blueberry, since that's about how big it is now). We lucked out on a floor model that has never been used. No scratches and all parts are included. It's cherry and pretty simple, but it seems sturdy.

The crib makes me really happy and makes it even more real that this is happening. Its not that I wasn't excited before. I've just been a little disappointed with the reality that we may not be home by the time it arrives. I wanted to create a cozy little nursery, but that's silly when you live in an apartment. So even if we don't have the Martha Stewart nursery, at least the blueberry will have some space to his or herself.

Everyone says it's a girl, including an ancient chinese astrological chart--but the magic 8 ball and Rich disagreee, so we'll just have to wait to see.

What a difference a day makes

Last Sunday was an incredible day. Of course, it didn't start out that way. We are in a slight pickle with our housing situation. Our lease is up at the end of the month and we'd love to move home. Unfortunately, without jobs, it's not an option. We can't affordably get an extension on our current lease, but are hesitant to sign a new one, since we don't know where we'll be and for how long.
Long story short we spent most of the day tracking all over Savannah looking for adequate housing. Our best options were a house that's about an hour one way from work (not so great when you work the night shift). Or, we could move into the upstairs of a moderate sized house, with an "efficiency" kitchen. The stove, sink and fridge took up less space than my dorm fridge.
Needless to say, we weren't feeling the greatest driving back to our apartment. Half jokingly, we toyed with the idea of moving home and taking a pair of minimum wage jobs, which, if full time, we could probably get by on. Then the phone rang.
I spoke with a library board president from a small town relatively close to home. The director job was mine for the asking.
The catch was a less than thorough answer on the question of insurance benefits. Rich and I decided we needed to find out exactly how important benefits were. We found out that evening that we are expecting a future hockey player and insurance is indeed important. This was probably one of the best days ever--we were both so excited for our family and to be moving home. We celebrated with a trip to walmart--where shopping the baby section was more than just something to kill time.

(ps--unfortunately, benefits became too important and I can't pass up the good deal I've already got here--so for now we're in Savannah, but we're still really happy just the same)

Adventures in Dog-Sitting

We're puppy-sitting for Rich's co worker. She's 8 months--which means she's big enough not to look like a puppy, but still young enough to act like one. I had forgotten how much work having a puppy can be. This is particularly true when you live in an appartment. The apartment was spotlessly clean prior to the puppy's arrival and currently looks like I hadn't tried to clean in weeks. This would be a considerably easier task if we had a fenced in yard.
The puppy has so much energy, she makes Roslyn look calm--which is really saying something. She's also a barker--another trait I've never really had to deal with in any of my pets. She arrived with a basket of cute toys; Roz has managed to ruin just about all of them. On the plus side--the puppy is cute with lots of personality. Also, she's all Rich's after tonight.

3 a.m. Wake-Up Call

Rich and I had a somewhat frightening surprise this weekend. We walked Roz shortly going to bed around 2:00 a.m. It was a cool night and we smelled smoke. We smelled a wood fire and assumed someone had built a fire in their
fireplace. We thought nothing of it. As we were dozing off we heard sirens, and I commented that they seemed close. Some time after 3:30 Rich got up for water, he discovered no water pressure in our faucets and put it all together. He woke me and we discovered the building on the corner (across the street and down two units) was ablaze. We watched as black smoke and tall flames quickly consumed the building. All roads in the complex were blocked off. Thankfully no one was hurt. It could have been so much worse and we are extremely grateful it wasn't us.


As a side story, note the kid in the picture. I call him shoeless Joe. This kid walks around the appartment complex all day and never has shirt or shoes on!

Our Home for Wayward Animals

Our apartment building is really rather perfect for stray cat mothers and their progeny. Unlike many of the buildings in the complex, it has a rather large crawl space. Directly below our quad is some loose lattice work just large enough for a cat to squeeze through. The humble abode is securely guarded by lush, thick and spiky holly bushes. Consequently, we are on our second litter of fur balls this summer. There are four black kittens and "Momma Cass," who is actually rather skinny for such a name. She started as "Momma Cat," but that wasn't much of a proper name. We've taken to feeding them dry food when we see them. I never realized small and hungry kittens could be so territorial over there food. They growl at one another. I've decided to place four small piles across the porch rather than one large bowl.


The next visitor to our home for wayward animals earned the name "Annie," as in little orphan Annie. She's a reddish-tan mixed breed with a black snout. She has a square head and soft short coat. I first noticed her while walking Roz in the evening about a week ago. She seemed to scurry away from us and caused no problems. I figured someone had just forgot to bring her in for the night.

On Sunday, Rich really noticed her. He tried to befriend her. Doing so went extremely easy. Once she got over her initial hesitations, she became the sweetest thing who wanted nothing more than to be petted. She wasn't even very hungry, although we left food and water for her the first night, just in case. She reluctantly sat on our porch with us and played with Roz through the window. Roz was excited because she wanted a new friend.

Another couple had been out walking that night and noticed her. They felt bad too and left her a bowl of kibbles and bits and some water under the tree in front of our apartment. Compared to our Pedigree, Annie loved the Kibbles.

Although Rich wanted to keep her, it was late and I informed him she couldn't come in without a bath. I was concerned about vet bills and the added expense, but so we agreed to temporary custody of Annie, until a better home could be found for her.

I had Monday off, so that morning we went in search of her. She was no where to be found. I searched all day. However it wasn't until Rich came home shortly after sundown that she returned to her playground "den." When Rich pulled in, she came over to him. We boxed Roz, petted Annie and brought her in for a bath. The bath went great; she was scared, but definitely more calm about the whole affair than Roslyn ever is. Rich and I discussed a Kroger run to get some Kibbles and Bits, a collar, maybe a second leash, even a new bone (or two so Roz wouldn't be jealous). While the flea shampoo set, I "baby proofed" the kitchen, relocating any chewable foods to higher ground.

After the bath, we dried Annie and moved her to the kitchen. We set up the baby gate so she and Roz could gradually socialize. I then let Roz out of her box. Without any warning, our "sweet" Annie snapped. She violently growled and bolted for Roz. In an instant, she had bust through the baby gate and was in pursuit. She chased Roz who ran for the shelter of her box. I did my best to block her, but was also afraid to stand between them. She nipped at Roz, who thankfully had enough fluff to keep the skin from being broken. Rich grabbed Annie's tale and yanked her out of the spare bedroom. I closed the door to keep Roz safe while Rich used a dinning room chair like a lion tamer to force Annie out of the house. We clearly wanted nothing more to do with her.

We tried chasing her from the house and ignored her hoping she'd move on. Yet Roz needed one last walk for the night. When we came out, we saw Annie across the yard at the playground. We hoped we could quickly sneak out without her approaching us. Unfortunately, Roz was attached a second time, as Annie had clearly become very territorial.

Throughout the night she remained on our porch or in the yard. Roz didn't seem too phased, especially since she got extra love and a peanut butter filled bone. However, she was restless and kept checking the window every few hours.

This morning, we were awoken by Annie's aggressive barks as cleaners attempted to visit the apartment above us. We knew we couldn't walk Roz if this continued. We went to speak to the folks in the front office who reported that animal services had been notified. They had attempted to catch her three times already this week, but Annie was clever and had evaded them.

Rich obtained a rope from the office, as well as the number for animal control. I called while Rich kept Annie in his sight. She no longer would let him approach and had become increasingly territorial. She even attacked a city worker's pick-up. After an hour or more, with the help of the office worker, Rich got the rope around Annie and had her tied to the office while she awaited pickup.

This has been a learning adventure. There are so many more things that could have gone wrong. We're really grateful that no one was hurt. We're sorry that it didn't work out for Annie. We hope she finds a good home some day. For now, we'll settle for being more cautious Samaritans.

Hockey in Savannah

Do you have any idea how hard it is to learn hockey while living in Savannah? I took up hockey a few months ago--just as something to do. Something I knew I could get Rich outdoors for. (It's hard to find motivation to leave the air conditioning during a 110% humidity Savannah Summer.) It started innocently enough--we just passed a hockey ball back and forth and tried to avoid Roz. I used Rich's regular stick, while he used the sacred stick he used to score his goal while playing on real ice. When we realized that, unlike Rich, I am not a right handed hockey player who can use a left-handed stick, we decided it was time to upgrade.

Finding a hockey stick in Savannah is a trick. About the only place with any is Play it Again Sports. There located in the back corner. There isn't much selection, so you've got to be lucky to find what you need. Rich must be lucky, because he found a basic street hockey stick (no frills plastic blade and all) for a right-handed player about my height. Truth be told--he didn't know my exact height and just bought the shortest stick they had. It fits perfectly.

We'd practice shots after work and I started getting respectable. However, just because I could clear the tennis court net did not mean I could aim. Rich decided we needed a net. Do you know how hard it is to find a hockey net in Savannah? Sure you can get a regulation size (4 x 6 foot) net meant for soccer, but they are flimsy and the holes in the net are too large for a hockey ball.
Rich decided to construct the frame from PVC pipe bought at the Home Depot.

Finding the net itself was another challenge. Apparently netting is harder to come by than you'd think, especially in Savannah. We searched high and low for an adequate material and finally settled on mesh laundry bags--you know, the sort that are on sale everywhere in August for the college bound.

The top tier of the net is one bag cut open on both the left and right side. The bottom tier consists of three bags, each split open on one side and the bottom. They are sewed side by side, with the aid of some extra-wide bias tape that was on clearance. The two layers were then stitched together, again using extra wide bias tape. My basic Singer sewing machine was not pleased with this project; it took an hour before I started my next project to return settings to normal cotton sewing mode.As you've guessed it, the net is attached to the frame with my own version of duct tape--cable ties.

The down side of our masterpiece? We can no longer play hockey on the tennis court. The management of our apartment has decried the court strictly for tennis. All other forms of recreation are strictly prohibited. Not that many people in the appartment complex actually play tennis. Guess they have to keep one thing about the place look nice and not outdated.